Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Sex/Life’s Adam Demos and Margaret Odette

Adam Demos and Margaret Odette are two of the stars of Netflix’s Sex/Life. Since its premiere, Sex/Life has become one of the most talked-about shows on the streaming platform.

Adapted from B.B. Easton’s 44 Chapters About 4 Men, Sex/Life tells the story of Billie Connelly. Before she became a stay-at-home wife and mother living in the suburbs, she was a free-spirited wild child living in New York City with her best friend Sasha (Margaret Odette), working hard and playing even harder. Exhausted from caring for her two young children, Billie begins reminiscing about the life she once had. While she ponders about how she got to where she is today, her husband, Cooper (Mike Vogel), discovers her journal, which details her passionate exploits with her ex-boyfriend, Brad (Adam Demos). Will the truth about Billie’s past start a sexual revolution in her marriage or lead her down a path back to the life she thought she left behind with the man who broke her heart?

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Adam and Margaret about their starring roles, the most challenging aspects of playing their characters, and so much more.

PC: For both of you, what was it about this character and script that attracted you to this project? Margaret, let’s start with you.
Margaret: When I first read the script, I was enthralled and intoxicated by the whole thing. My character Sasha is this fun, feisty little firecracker, but she’s got a lot of heart. She’s incredibly loyal, and she is in many ways the moral center of the first season. It was really, really wonderful to tap into someone that dynamic and also to portray a friendship this deep, lasting, and nourishing throughout. There aren’t often pieces that are about sex and relationships where women don’t wind up being catty little bitches to one another. It was really important that that didn’t happen with this series. It was really, really great to bring this healthy female friendship into the TV landscape.

PC: How about for you, Adam?
Adam: It was the emotional journeys that each of these characters go through. I remember reading it and finding it incredibly relatable. Whatever version of that you’ve had in your life, it’s extremely relatable. It was cool being able to play people both eight years in the past and in the present and to explore how they’ve changed and evolved and the regrets that they’ve had. You don’t often get an opportunity to do that.

PC: Margaret, this is your first series regular role. Did anything surprise you about the experience? What was the biggest takeaway?
Margaret: The biggest surprise was the pandemic. [laughs] After my third day of filming, we had to shut down our entire project. That was the biggest wrench in the system that I could never have predicted. But then of course the greatest blessing was the fact that Netflix decided to continue our process, and after five really gut-wrenching, traumatic, confusing, chaotic months, we came back to Canada. We were supported by this incredible team of crew and health and safety COVID folks. We were able to live out this dream in the middle of a nightmare. I feel very overwhelmingly surprised and elated by how well the process went and how fun it was to do.

PC: Adam, Stacy [Rukeyser] said in the past that she wrote this character with you in mind. Did that bring any pressure heading into this project? What was it like collaborating with her again?
Adam: Well, I didn’t know that. [laughs] I’m so glad that I didn’t because the pressure would have been huge. We had worked together before and I knew that she was creating the show, but I didn’t know who the characters were. I didn’t know if there was the potential that I might play one of them. Then at the audition, I was like “Damn. I know I can bring something to this. Hopefully, it works out,” and it did. I’m extremely grateful. She was an incredible showrunner on UnREAL, but to see her working with her own creation, it was mind-blowing. She’s so bold.

PC: Both of your characters have such rich storylines throughout the first season. What was your favorite thing about playing your respective characters and what was the most challenging?
Margaret: Adam mentioned this earlier, but we get to go back and forth between this past younger version of ourselves and the present. That created a lot of opportunities to create a beautiful arc and to explore a completely different landscape within “New York”. We got to have a lot of fun party scenes. There were a lot of really intimate, small, deep scenes. There was such a plethora of playing that we got to do because the show takes place over this eight-year span. That was really fun. It also made it super challenging, especially with shooting out of sequence. Sometimes I was like, “Where am I? Who am I?” But it was a wonderful challenge as an actor. It’s the kind of thing that you dream you might get to do. It pushes and challenges you.

Adam: It was showing Brad’s vulnerability in its true form. He has all these issues and gets a little volatile. He’s pushing Billie away. By showing that vulnerability, you’re having him bear his soul. It’s scary because if you don’t do that, then people don’t understand why he’s acting out the way he is. But it’s so fun because how often do you get the opportunity to do something like that?

Make sure to follow Adam (Instagram) and Margaret (Twitter/Instagram). Binge-watch Season 1 of Sex/Life on Netflix.